Digitising the high street, part one: Why?

Despite digital retail becoming ever-more dominant, some high street stores are actually flourishing in the current climate. But how? As Marketing Week reports, such trend-transcending success can't be explained by a single factor alone. To take Shoezone as an example, success has been achieved through (amongst other factors) maintaining a lean operational structure and increased concentration on online sales and email marketing.

But, as confirmed at a recent Retail CIO roundtable discussion organised by Exponential-e, the one factor of many that should perhaps be of most interest to CIOs is technology-assisted enhancement of the in-store experience. After all, as Sir Charlie Mayfield, Chairman of John Lewis admitted recently, high-street retailers will "never beat Amazon by having better algorithms", but nevertheless have a "huge opportunity to use [their] people and technology to offer better service to [their] customers."

Key to improving the in-store retail experience is replicating the attractive features of the online retail experience. Kees Jacobs, Vice President of Global Consumer products and Retail Sector at Capgemini points out in a recent interview with Gigabit magazine that "shoppers have grown to expect in-store experiences that reflect [the] level of personalisation, ease and speed" they've come to expect through their laptops and handheld devices. According to Jacobs, bricks-and-mortars "need to provide consumers with a seamless, quick and intuitive digitally led experience."

One way to do this is by replacing the traditional Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) systems - in other words, checkouts - with a so-called Mobile Point of Sale (MPOS). In February, a survey by Retail Week (in collaboration with Worldplay) reported that 63% of consumers they surveyed said that checkout-free stores would make visiting retailers more engaging or desirable. We're already seeing this on the high street; for example, customers at Wetherspoons can now use a smartphone app to order food and drinks to their table without leaving their seat.

Not content with dominating e-commerce, Amazon has been making inroads into brick-and-mortar retailing for some time now, and its checkout-free grocery stores are ample proof that (surprise, surprise) it can more than match the traditional brick-and-mortars technologically.

However, if traditional retailers learn to use technology - and in particular customer data - more strategically, there's an opportunity for them to beat the e-commerce giants on their home turf: the high street.

As Kees Jacobs writes:

"AI has the potential to help retailers understand their customers' buying behaviour in more depth. By analysing data from customers' repeat purchases and online transactions, retailers can create hyper-personalised buying experiences in-store. Armed with this knowledge, shop assistants could, for example, provide customers with tailored buying suggestions, creating a VIP experience for them."

Kees Jacobs

For retailers, then, the incentive to Digitally Transform is clear; so, however, are the challenges that come with it.

I'll discuss these challenges, and how they can be addressed, in part two.